Soul (2020)

[StevePulaski]

Soul (2020)
Directed by: Pete Docter

Rating: ★★★

We tend to forget about directors of animated films when naming some of the best filmmakers working today, myself included. With that in mind, it's time to start acknowledging the work of Pete Docter, arguably Pixar's best, most reliable name among a crowded roster of unbelievable talent. Working on every Pixar feature since Toy Story, Docter is responsible for some of the studio's most ambitious and cerebral concepts: Up, Inside Out, and now Soul, another work of art that yet again illustrates our consciousness in ways for which you might not be prepared.

Immediately, we are introduced to Joe Gardener (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher who looks onto his listless, off-key students with great disillusionment. This wasn't supposed to be his life. Ever since his father introduced him to the beauty of jazz, Joe knew he wanted to be a performer. But ultimately, he must make a living, and although the school just offered him full-time employment with benefits and a pension, he's still apprehensive to accept it — much to the chagrin of his mother.

His fortune changes on the same day. He gets a call from a former student named Curley (Amir "Questlove" Thompson), now a rising musician, who offers him a chance to perform alongside famed saxophonist Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett). He can't accept the offer fast enough, but in a haste of rushing home on the bustling streets of Queens, a lucky streak of near-misses in oncoming traffic stops when he falls through a manhole and into another dimension.

Joe becomes a "soul," a small, ghostly-white entity who is on a conveyor belt headed for "The Great Beyond." Joe takes another leap of fate and ends up in "The Great Before," where infantile souls — illustrated as bubbles with faces — are assigned distinctive personality traits ("insecure," "self-absorbed") and sent to Earth to inhabit a newborn. In this purgatorial new dimension, he meets "22" (Tina Fey), a disconnected soul who has no attachment to the world. She's explored dozens of interests, none of which are satisfying. When the two find a way to enter the real-world — although Joe not as himself — is when things get real hairy.

I can only fathom the difficultly in pitching a project this lofty, even to a company predicated on thinking outside the box. Soul is complicated, sometimes overly so, to the extent I'm not going to pretend to know how children will respond to it. I'm sure they'll take to it visually, but much like Up, this is a Pixar effort for the adults as much or more than the kids. It draws on ideas of existentialism. It's about living up to your potential although not being defined by it. It ultimately concerns what we're all trying to do: find a way to be happy and fulfilled in life.

Soul takes us on a captivating journey in similar ways to Inside Out insofar that it illustrates emotions and distinctly human traits. Docter, aided by screenwriters Mike Jones and Kemp Powers along with a legion of animators, explores consciousness and what it means to be a human being. We get a sympathetic and relatable everyman in Joe, who harbors the same dream he's had since he was a kid, struggling against all odds to make it a reality, and we're thrust into an interdimensional world that boldly articulates its own rules. Furthermore, any film that can wisely utilize Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and take a jab at the New York Knicks' organizational and on-court ineptitude is a winner in my book.

Soul also harbors a beautiful score, maybe the best of any Pixar film thus far. The exceptionally gifted Trent Reznor makes up a large number of the compositions as does Oscar-winner Atticus Ross. As much as Soul is a loving ode to the human experience, it's another entry in the canon of American films that recognize the art of jazz music. After this and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, you might catch me at The Green Mill in Chicago's infamous Uptown neighborhood on a Saturday evening very soon.

NOTE: Soul is now available to stream on Disney+ at no added cost. A short-film called Burrow was supposed to precede the film in its planned theatrical run. It too is available to stream on Disney+ and is well-worth your time.

NOTE II: Catch my full review of Soul on Sleepless with Steve:


Voiced by: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Questlove, Angela Bassett, Daveed Diggs, and Richard Ayoade. Directed by: Pete Docter.